The Finanser’s Week: 27th April – 3rd May 2009

Here are the key stories of the week:

A Directory of Social Finance
The do's and do not's of Social Finance
Insider Trading and Twitter
Arguing about Twitter is a waste of time
Why mobile banking has taken so long
MTFs versus Incumbent Exchanges, Round One
MTFs versus Incumbent Exchanges, Round Two
Look deep into my dark pools

Our major stories of the week include:

A Directory of Social Finance

A
few people have said to me that they find it hard to navigate around
all the ideas on social finance I've written recently, so here's a
non-exhaustive compendium.

The do's and do not's of Social Finance

Jeffry Pilcher at the Financial Brand posted this excellent presentation on Slideshare last week about the do's and do not's of social finance.

Insider Trading and Twitter

I wondered recently about the potential of market abuse in new social
media.  This was inspired by an April Fool from the Insurance Post,
which had the headline: "FSA proposes ban on social networking sites".

Arguing about Twitter is a waste of time

There have been various arguments about Twitter in the last few
months and whether the alerts tool is useful or not.  I started one
debate a while ago and now there is another one (maybe).  First, let me
set the record straight before folks think I'm a puritanically obsessed
Twitterati.  At
a personal level, I am a fan of Twitter; I'm not a big networker on
Facebook; I don't like Second Life; and most social networking online
is dross.

Why mobile banking has taken so long

I had a call the other day about the success of Chip & PIN. This
is because of the latest fraud figures from
APACS, which shows UK
retailer fraud shrank from £73.2 million in 2005 to £37.5 million in
2008.  This year, merchant fraud has risen 26% to £47.4 million, the
largest jump in criminal activity in payments for all card activity. 
"Is Chip & PIN working?" was the focus of the call therefore.

MTFs versus Incumbent Exchanges, Round One

There
were two more great discussions during TradeTech that compared and
contrasted the incumbents with the new MTFs. The first focused upon
attracting liquidity and what that means; the second on the likely view
for the future of trading venues.  The first discussion was a debate with a little of the usual spikey stuff about “our exchange is better / cheaper / faster than your one” ...

MTFs versus Incumbent Exchanges, Round Two

Andrew Silverman, Managing Director Electronic Trading for Morgan
Stanley, chaired the second day session’s at TradeTech with a great
dialogue about attracting liquidity between the new exchanges, the
Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs) created by the Markets in
Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), and the incumbents.  This led to a second discussion of the future of trading venues. Here’s my summary notes.  

Look deep into my dark pools

It’s
a line I’ve wanted to use in conversation for a long-time but never
found the opportunity and now here it is: “look deep into my dark
pools”.  No, I haven’t made a mess or done something
socially unacceptable.  I’m just looking at the latest trading
phenomena where buyers can place large trades into a market exchange
and they sit there until sellers offer a good enough price for the
volume.

Rest of the week's reading:

• 2nd May 2009
• 1st May 2009
• 30th April 2009
• 29th April 2009
• 28th April 2009
• 27th April 2009

And all this in the week of swine flu:

Thanks to the Expert.